Mr. Harsha Ilukpitiya, Controller General of Immigration and Emigration, said that a method of applying for the passport online will be introduced in the near future.
According to him, a resident of any province of the island will be able to bring his passport home within a short period of three days, he said.
He expressed these views while participating in the ‘1O1 Katha’ program produced by the Presidential Media Division.
You can visit the Immigration and Emigration Department’s website www.immigration.gov.lk and apply for the passport, then go to the nearest Divisional Secretary’s Office and after giving your fingerprints, you have to make the related payment through the online system.
The Controller General of Immigration and Emigration said that 50 Divisional Secretariat offices have already installed the necessary equipment, including fingerprint-taking machines and the Department of Posts has also introduced a new courier service for these activities.
Mr. Harsha Ilukpitiya, Controller General of Immigration and Emigration, who further commented there,
“Many revelations have been made by the media in recent days that brokers are interfering in the process of issuing foreign passports in an illegal manner. Accordingly, we were instructed by the minister in charge to prepare a new program to prevent such illegal activities. Accordingly, we have planned to popularize the new program that we have created in the first two weeks of this June.
This program is a turning point in the history of the Department of Immigration and Emigration. The Department of Immigration and Emigration will complete 75 years next year. It must be said that if this program is successfully implemented by the anniversary, it will be a great achievement for the department.
According to this new system, a person can get this service from home. Visit the www.immigration.gov.lk website, visit the section called Apply for passports (online method) and after entering the data, registration is done. Then the relevant application will be forwarded to the applicant and after completing it and uploading the soft copy of the relevant documents, he should mark whether he needs to get the passport in 03 days or according to the normal method which is in 02 weeks.
After this process, they should come to their nearest divisional secretary’s office, give their fingerprints and make the relevant payments through the online system.
If someone is unable to do the related process at home, they can go to a studio approved by the Immigration and Emigration Department and get the work done.
If someone is unable to make the relevant payments online after going to the Divisional Secretariat and giving their fingerprints, facilities have also been arranged for that. After providing the fingerprints, the Divisional Secretariat will give a number to each applicant and when that number is submitted to any Bank of Ceylon branch, the bank will make the money available to our department.
Fingerprint-taking machines and cameras have already been installed in 50 Divisional Secretariat Offices and the Department of Posts has also introduced a new courier service for these activities. At present, we have an agreement with the postal department regarding the home delivery of the passport by courier.
As the postal department has mentioned to us, the passport will be delivered to the home within 02 days for the applicants within the city of Colombo. Apart from that, the applicants will receive the passport to their homes in 03 days.
Steps have also been taken to prevent the irregularities occurring there and the existing modern technology has been used to the maximum extent for that purpose.
This is being implemented according to President Ranil Wickramasinghe’s plan to digitize the public service.
